The concept for CAP 2, as voted on by the community and submitted by the same person who won Tomohawk's concept thread, is as follows:
I will be frequently poking my head into this thread and reevaluating both the Pokemon's direction and my own opinions based on what you all say. Expect frequent posts from me. Oh, and avoid unnecessary tl;dr! Say what you want to say in such a way that encourages others to actually read it. ;)
tl;dr: Quack! (Assess!)
This concept, as many have previously surmised, is a mold for us to follow and doesn't really present any fixed Pokemon for us to fashion. I know some of you, judging from your votes in the concept poll, are uneasy with a concept that has as much movepool flexibility as ours, but that is part of the challenge. We need to—knowing that this CAP can have any one of any move in the game—adjust the process to create our CAP successfully. Consequently, we need to address this with the discussion and eventual conclusion of this thread. First, we'll look at the type of questions that determine the direction of CAP 2. We need to decide on a role for the CAP, and address the following questions.Concept: Sketch Artist
Description: A Pokemon that learns Sketch, once, and everything that goes along with that.
Justification:
In terms of uniqueness, I think that few existing Pokemon can match DPP Smeargle, an otherwise laughably worthless Pokemon trolling OU with access to every trick in the book (or at least 4 of them) but also affecting the metagame greatly by becoming a top threat in the lead metagame. This Pokemon will borrow some of that uniqueness by learning the move Sketch and thus having access to ONE surprise/strategic/gutshot bonus move to supplement its pre-existing movepool. Being otherwise competently built (read: usable stats), this Poke could be a top threat or specialist for reasons we can't even predict yet.
Questions To Be Answered:
Explanation: The key here is that we have a lot of freedom to construct a unique Pokemon while staying within the confines of the concept. Typing, stats, abilities, and even most of the movepool are completely fair game so long as the Poke learns Sketch only once along the way and that we keep that in mind during previous steps. Now, this doesn't mean the CAP process will be directionless; Rising Dusk is pretty well organized and good at keeping discussions focused, and the concept itself has firm grounding in Smeargle's precedent. What's really being studied with this concept is movepool diversity and effectiveness, so it should have the most effect on the movepool process, where movepool creators will have to carefully balance their Sketchmon's actual movepool with the possibility of adding any one other move to the list. In terms of the metagame, there is no doubt in my mind that throwing a wildcard like this into the mix will strongly affect the metagame.
- How will a Poke that has access to any one move out of all the moves in the game affect common battling tactics, namely prediction, scouting, and switching?
- Which Sketch moves will become most common on this Poke's best sets? Does Sketchmon's success rely on hiding that secret Sketch move until just the right moment or can it succeed with predictably powerful moves like Spore, Spikes, Hurricane, Shell Smash, etc.?
- Does this unique and powerful access to moves need to be counterbalanced elsewhere in the Pokemon's design? If so, then to what degree?
- What kind of impact can Sketchmon have on teambuilding in terms of being able to patch holes with common utility moves like Rapid Spin or Toxic Spikes?
- Should CAP 2 be primarily offensive or defensive or supporting?
- How do you balance a single of any move in the game on a Pokemon?
- What can Smeargle teach us about Sketch that will be relevant to creating CAP 2?
I will be frequently poking my head into this thread and reevaluating both the Pokemon's direction and my own opinions based on what you all say. Expect frequent posts from me. Oh, and avoid unnecessary tl;dr! Say what you want to say in such a way that encourages others to actually read it. ;)
tl;dr: Quack! (Assess!)